"Clammy burgers and dirty toilets" - Podcast sheds light on shocking Players Championship conditions

On the big stages, it's all glitz and glamour that rules the roost. But life on the floor tournaments is much less rosy, as Damian Vlottes, host of the 'Darts Draait Door' podcast recently experienced alongside Jules van Dongen. Vincent van der Voort could only agree that there is still a lot of work for the PDC to do here.

"I was with Jules van Dongen in Leicester, a city you don't want to be found dead in anyway," Vlottes began his story. "Our hotel was a twenty-minute walk from the venue and on the way we came across vagrants and homeless people every few meters. Then the best darters in the world walk among them. I thought that was already unusual."

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"There is no decent food to be found. You could get a burger with fries, but it was clammy as hell. Not normal. That disappointed me," Vlottes said. "This disappoints me about you," picks up Van der Voort. "Leicester is still one of the better cities for us darters. You've certainly never been to Barnsley...? That's much worse."

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Frying pan

At times, the smell in the room was unbearable. "You can smell right away that the fryer is on," Van der Voort said. "But I also don't know if players are going to take advantage of it if there's suddenly a salad. You see plenty that just eat those burgers. That aspect could be a lot better."

"On TV it looks heartbreaking, but when you go off stage and through the curtain, it's done. Nine times out of ten, you're then just up against a truck. Restrooms, for example, are often not optimal either. In Leicester we had to share 2 or 3 toilets with 200 people. There may well be better looked at by the PDC."